Everyone deserves a vacation!

        How many of you have said "I NEED A VACATION!"? I do! I think of it all the time. But with all our expenses, I have to do my homework to plan an awesome but affordable vacation. My family had been to almost 40 states in just 4 years. Are you wondering how we did it? In this blog, I will give you some ideas on how to see places and enjoy without breaking the piggy bank.

        But first, let me tell you about myself. I was born in the Philippines and moved here in US after college. 21 years old and I have a job, a car and my own apartment. How awesome is that! I met my husband, Francisco (Kiko), in the nursing home where we both worked. He was flirting with me, although he claimed that I was the one flirting with him. We have lots of things in common such as eating out and going to places. At that time, we only explored places that are 1-3 hours drive from Chicago. We're both immigrants so we're scared to drive too far! At that time, we didn't have GPS so we relied on Mapquest a lot! We dated for 3 years then decided to sign the dotted line. We just celebrated our 11th year anniversary last May. Yey,  I can't believe its been that long! We have 2 children named Abby (9 yrs old) and Bella (7 yrs old).  Last year, we bought our home in the west suburb of Chicago. The best parts are that my kids stay in the same school district as before and my workplace is just next exit, which is about 10 mins drive. Not for my hubby, he has to drive 45 mins to his work.

       Like most people do, we have a routine in our family. My hubby drops off the kids in the morning before going to work and I pick them up in the afternoon. We both work full time 5 days/week. Kiko is an IT Administrator in a park district and I am a Physical Therapist in a nursing home. Both our girls have after school activities so it's always busy, busy.....and did I say BUSY yet? It's exhausting! And did you know that I finally came to my senses and started running since January to lose some extra baby fats? Yes, I go to the gym at night 5x/wk at 8:30pm. That's the only time when the kids are done with everything and I can have time for myself (by the way, I lost almost 10 lbs). I always sleep at midnight and wake up at 6am to start the routine all over again!

      Have you read enough about my busy life? Okay, let's talk about vacation (finally!). Most of my friends and relatives have told me that we've been to more places than people who lived here all their lives. IT'S TRUE! They want to know the secret. How did we do all these trips with all our other expenses? The answer is easy....ROAD TRIPS!  I'm obsessive compulsive when it comes to travel so I do my research a lot and set only a certain budget...call me your "walking trip advisor"! So far, it works all the time and kids love it! I will give you tips on how to do it so you and your family don't have to do staycation all the time.

   

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